Photoshop and Colorspaces

[kipper]

Hi, just a quick question and I hope somebody can quickly point me in my merry way. I know there is heaps of documents already on the subject but I don't want to spend the rest of my evening searching and then reading them. I've taken images at the F1GP in colormode II (adobe RGB) and then I convert from NEF to TIFF and edit the images in Photoshop (still in Adobe RGB) for cropping. While The images look just right here when I save out to JPG and view in IE they look dark, slightly desaturated. Now I know under the Image menu option you can Assign or Convert to Profile. The question, which profile do I save to that will look just right on the web? Or is there another issue at hand while viewing/editting in Adobe ie. gamma correction?

[robw25]

good question kipper.... will keep watch for an answer myself

cheers rob

[kipper]

Actually the F18 going from Adobe RGB to SRGB wasn't desaturated, if anything it became darker and the sky colors had more cyan in them. Other pictures it tends to darken them and desaturate.

[sirhc55]

My work flow is: shoot RAW - open thru ACR in PS do PP save as TIF (keeping the original) resize to longest size 800 pixels and save as Jpg at 8 - all of my pics on this forum have been done this way (sizing sometimes different) and they all look OK to me

[sirhc55]

If you are working in AdobeII make sure your profile in PS is set up for Adobe 1998 and not sRGB

[kipper]

I work in Adobe PS CS. Working Spaces - RGB: Adobe RGB (1998), CMYK: US Coated (SWOP) V2.

Shoot RAW (with cm set to II (adobe rgb), then work in PS using that as a working profile. Then when I convert to sRGB for the web it looks different. Even when saving out in original colormode.

[sirhc55]

Kipper - I have shot hundreds of photos for the web for clients and I never ever convert to sRGB - from tiff to jpg and they are fine

[kipper]

Yes, but what I'm saying is that going from RAW->TIFF there was no change, then from TIFF->JPEG there was no change. Looks fine in Nikon Capture Editor, same in Photoshop. It's only when viewed in IE that it looks borked.

[sirhc55]

Yes, but what I'm saying is that going from RAW->TIFF there was no change, then from TIFF->JPEG there was no change. Looks fine in Nikon Capture Editor, same in Photoshop. It's only when viewed in IE that it looks borked.

You did say in the thread before that you converted to sRGB for the web - now you are saying TIF to JPG - so what are you doing

[kipper]

Well what I'm saying is that, the file format changes aren't the problem. It's the color mode / color space that is. No matter what color space I'm in, they don't look the same in IE as they do in PS.

[sirhc55]

Kipper - do you have another browser that you can cross reference too. I use IE and Safari (obviously a mac user). It can’t be a gamma problem otherwise it would look the same in PS.

Maybe a PC person can help on this as I am not familiar with these machines and it could be a set up problem - only a guess

[kipper]

Yeah, I will look tomorrow. I don't want to do too many photos at this stage until I get them all right

[Onyx]

Kipper, you should convert all images destined to end up on the web to sRGB. IIRC, it's the Ctrl+K menu in photoshop, colourspace conversion is the absolute last step, after USM. Convert using the Adobe engine (not Microsoft's ICM), try either perceptual or relative colorimetric intent to see which gives the more desireable output.

If you maintain an aRGB1998 workflow, it helps to convert to sRGB for web if you want other people to see what you're seeing. Otherwise, you may/may not know if what others are seeing and critiquing are what you see. I've noted especially Killakoala, MattK and Gstark's pics are aRGB and wonder whether they know how it looks like in other people's browsers versus what their intention was for their images.

[Sean]

There is a stack of info about what you should do already here but I thought this link may be handy for looking at another process
http://www.gballard.net/psd/adobecameraraw.html

See ya mate

Sean

[stubbsy]

kipper

You might also like to look at this thread where I had similar problems and resolved them (I even have sample pics )

Cheers

[Charlie Chalk]

I have (almost) exactly the same problem, except my images look washed out in IE.

I believe its because Windows doesn't recognise colour spaces (sRGB, Adobe RGB etc). Any data embeded into the image is ignored.

Mac's on the other hand are able to see the data in Jpg's so show the images in their true light.

I have a picture on thte desktop of my G5 at work of the Tyne Bridge at dusk, looks fab. Same picture on desktop of this (Windows XP) laptop and it looks a little washed out and flat.

I think the crapness (is that a word?) of this monitor, and the need for it to be calibrated enhances the washed out look as well.

I created a website earlier this year with a gif gradient background image and a jpg with the company logo on it with the gradient background as well. both backgrounds matched perfectly on Windows IE, but when viewed with Mac IE the jpg background was much darker, after investigation I found the colour space was set to Adobe RGB.

CC

[sirhc55]

CC - this is a common problem that is associated with Mac and PC - the gamma of the PC is 2.2 and the Mac is 1.8.

Aobe RGB has nothing to do with it - all of my images posted are RGB and to date I have not had one person comment on whether they are too dark or too light.

If you are using PS there is an easy way to see the difference. Open a pic and duplicate. Go to view - proof setup and set one pic for Mac and on the other pic do the same thing but set for Windows RGB and you will see the difference.

[Onyx]

Aobe RGB has nothing to do with it - all of my images posted are RGB and to date I have not had one person comment on whether they are too dark or too light.

Perhaps because we PC users can't see what you're seeing for comparison. The image may look fine on this end, and fine on your end, but both mutually exclusive.

[sirhc55]

Aobe RGB has nothing to do with it - all of my images posted are RGB and to date I have not had one person comment on whether they are too dark or too light.

Perhaps because we PC users can't see what you're seeing for comparison. The image may look fine on this end, and fine on your end, but both mutually exclusive.

Onyx - so true

[Charlie Chalk]

Apologies!

The trouble is I sound so convincing even I believe what I say sometimes.

I new there was a difference between the two, Mac & PC and I was sure that I'd read somewhere that it was down to thte colour space reading abilities of the Mac.

But how would that explain the problem with the Jpg image, looking ok against a gif background on one system, too dark on the other?

CC